He then alluded ironically to the “good favour and money” with which he had been so contented of late, that if Mr. Wilkes would discharge him of his promise to Lord Leicester, he would take his leave with all his heart.  Captain, officers, and soldiers, had been living on half a pound of cheese a day.  For himself, he had received but one hundred and twenty pounds in five months, and was living at three pounds by the day.  “This my wealth will not long hold out,” he observed, “but yet I will never fail of my promise to his Excellency, whatsoever I endure.  It is for her Majesty’s service and for the love I bear to him.”

He bitterly complained of the unwillingness of the country-people to furnish vivers, waggons, and other necessaries, for the fort before Zutphen.  “Had it not been,” he said, “for the travail extraordinary of myself, and patience of my brother, Yorke, that fort would have been in danger.  But, according to his desire and forethought, I furnished that place with cavalry and infantry; for I know the troops there be marvellous weak.”

In reply, Wilkes stated that the complaints had been made “by no rhetorician,” but by letter from the magistrates themselves (on whom he relied so confidently) to the state-council.  The councillor added, rather tartly, that since his honest words of defence and of warning, had been “taken in so scoffing a manner,” Sir William might be sure of not being troubled with any more of his letters.

But, a day or two before thus addressing him, he had already enclosed to Leicester very important letters addressed by the council of Gelderland to Count Moeurs, stadholder of the Province, and by him forwarded to the state-council.  For there were now very grave rumours concerning the fidelity of “that patient and foreseeing brother York,” whom Stanley had been so generously strengthening in Fort Zutphen.  The lieutenant of York, a certain Mr. Zouch, had been seen within the city of Zutphen, in close conference with Colonel Tassis, Spanish governor of the place.  Moreover there had been a very frequent exchange of courtesies—­by which the horrors of war seemed to be much mitigated—­between York on the outside and Tassis within.  The English commander sent baskets of venison, wild fowl, and other game, which were rare in the market of a besieged town.  The Spanish governor responded with baskets of excellent wine and barrels of beer.  A very pleasant state of feeling, perhaps, to contemplate—­as an advance in civilization over the not very distant days of the Haarlem and Leyden sieges, when barrels of prisoners’ heads, cut off, a dozen or two at a time, were the social amenities usually exchanged between Spaniards and Dutchmen—­but somewhat suspicious to those who had grown grey in this horrible warfare.

The Irish kernes too, were allowed to come to mass within the city, and were received there with as much fraternity by, the Catholic soldiers of Tassis as the want of any common dialect would allow—­a proceeding which seemed better perhaps for the salvation of their souls, than—­for the advancement of the siege.